THE PNG DIARIES

1. Pre-Deployment // The volunteers host a fundraiser and make final preparations for the trip. As they depart for Papua New Guinea, the group lays out the objectives for this year’s mission.

2. Peri-Deployment // Work begins in the Western Highlands Province. Doctors begin seeing patients at the clinic while the rest of the group carries out water testing programs and distributes water filters. The volunteers reunite to do outreach activities at the Goroka Festival.

3. Post-Deployment // As the mission draws to an end, volunteers reflect on the work accomplished and what remains unfinished. A women’s health workshop gone wrong forces the team to contend with an ethical dilemma.

THE PNG DIARIES is a series of three mini-documentaries focused on the work of Water Hands Hope, a US non-profit that organizes yearly missions to the Papua New Guinea highlands to staff the Madan Plantation clinic and conduct WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) programs. The series is shown as part of global health classes at University of Hawai’i.

Cinematography and Editing: Valerio Ciriaci, Erica Wong

Color Grading: Susie Dolnig (House of Trim)

Opening Animation: Jenny Mascia

Sound Design & Mix: Luigi Porto

Produced by Awen Films for University of Hawai’i at Mānoa School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene